


emergency

by northernwildflowers



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Bitty is sick of cleaning up Nursey's shit, Derek Nurse is dumb and does dumb shit and also pines after Dex a lot like a lot a lot, M/M, i added more chapters and accidentally created a plot and ran away from the prompt sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-08-28 03:38:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8430367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/northernwildflowers/pseuds/northernwildflowers
Summary: "Nursey." Bitty sounded about as disappointed as Nursey felt. "Um. Yes. I'm stuck.""You're stuck,""There's, like, ropes and shit." Nursey isn't exactly sure what he's saying or how to explain his situation; he's still relatively drunk.(Derek Nurse does dumb shit and Eric Bittle is a Good Bro, at least initially.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I made this post (( http://kaleidoscopeparson.tumblr.com/post/152467419220/can-someone-write-a-fic-abt-bitty-being-listed-as )) a few days ago and I'm super impatient so I filled the prompt myself. Also, uh, just assume that the names in your favourites are based on how often the person is contacted.

The first time Nursey gets critically injured, he's relatively conscious. There isn't any blood, and the pain is overwhelming but not unbearable. He's sitting in the on-campus medical center, a stack of papers next to him, as he halfheartedly attempts to curl his fingers around a pen. The fingers of his left hand look more like a gnarled tree than anything human and Nursey lets out a groan, quickly looking away before he gets too nauseous. 

"Hey, hon? We can't let you in until you fill out the paperwork." There's a woman sitting at the front desk, her hair a delicate arrangement of pin curls that looks more frazzled than nice. Derek blinks. "We need you to fill out the paperwork," she says again, firmer, and his eyes flash to the clock. The medical center closes at nine, technically, and it's 8:52. Nursey knows, logically, that the lady at the front desk probably just wants to go home, but the room starts spinning and he forgets what she was telling him. 

"I...I don't know if I can write?" He says, and it comes out like a question. She squints at him. 

"I can help you fill out your paperwork if you want, or you can call someone to help you?"

Nursey thinks about it, slowly, and nods. He starts fishing his phone out of his pocket, careful to avoid jostling his injured hand. 

"I'm gonna call my friend," he says, more to himself than anything, and the woman flicks her eyes to him before going back to her work. He starts looking for Bitty's contact, the letters on his phone screen swirling a bit. The phone rings three times before Bitty answers. 

"Nursey? What's up?"

"Hey, um. Hey, so I'm at the medical center and I, uh, I kind of broke my hand? So, I was wondering if you could come by and help me because, like, I can't write and uh-" He tries so hard to sound chill, but he knows is all comes out in harsh starts and stops. 

"Oh, goodness, yeah, don't worry, Derek, I'll be there in a few minutes!" Bitty sounds mildly panicked and Nursey gives himself a moment to allow the overwhelming sense of gratefulness he has for his friends to overtake him. "Bye!" he hears, and the line goes dead. 

It takes Bitty about five minutes to get there and when he does, he's out of breath. Nursey looks to the front desk and the woman is looking at him with a leveled expression. Bitty sits down next to Nursey, letting out a small gasp when he sees the other boy's hand. 

"God, god, what did you do?" Bitty asks, eyes wide as he inspected his hand carefully. 

"Okay so, I saw this cat," Nursey began. "And, like, dude, this cat was huge, so I maybe tried to follow it up the tree next to the Haus and then, um, fell out of the tree." He said, and Bitty's eyes narrowed. 

"What." 

"I fell out of a tree."

"Because of a cat," and Nursey nodded. Bitty let out a long suffering sigh before grabbing the stack of paperwork that was sitting in Nursey's lap. "Fine, okay. Date of birth?" He asked, and they filled out the paperwork. When Bitty got to the emergency card, he looked at Nursey, rolling his eyes, before writing in his own name and personal information. Again, Nursey felt that gratefulness wash over him. 

_/\\_

It happens again, a few days later, except he's not necessarily injured so much as he's in excruciating pain . He's kind of terrified, honestly, lying on his back in the LAX bros' front yard. He doesn't think he hurt anything, but he knows the wind was knocked out of him and he doesn't know if he could run if a LAX bro caught him lounging on their lawn. He's staring up at the canopy of trees and he calls Bitty. 

"Hey, Bits?" 

"Hi," and Nursey can feel the suspicion from across the street. 

"I'm in the LAX bros' front yard," he says and Bitty sighs. "And I fell out of that really big oak tree, yanno the one with the leaves that always blow into our yard, and I can't stand on my own." The line is silent. "Hello?" 

Nursey flinches when he hears the front door of the Haus slam open. Nursey can see flour falling out of his hair as he marches towards the LAX bros' house. A moment later, Bitty is looking over him, hands on his hips, scowl on his lips, and jam on his cheek. 

"Why were you in the LAX house's tree?" Bitty says, waving a hand in front of Nursey's face. He takes it, and Bitty unceremoniously jerks him to his feet. Nursey is shocked for a moment at how easy it is for the smaller boy, before recalling that he literally watched Bitty bench press his weight only a few hours ago. 

"Okay, ow!" Nursey exclaims, rubbing his shoulder and scowling at the blond. "I could have a fractured rib or something!" 

Bitty sniffs, turns back towards the Haus, hand still closed around Nursey's wrist. 

"You're fine." He says, and drags Nursey back to the Haus, only looking back to make sure the LAX bros hadn't spotted them. When they're in the kitchen, Bitty shuts the curtains with a force so dramatic, he would have chirped him if it weren't for the deadpan look on his 

"Now, what were you plotting?" Bitty asks, exasperated, and Nursey laughs. 

"I was…” He paused to catch his breath and rubs his eye. “I was gonna put...so much glitter in their beds. So much." Bitty's face flickers between what Nursey thinks is pride and what Nursey knows is annoyance. He settles on this pompous quirk of his lips that Nursey is kind of scared of. 

"They should know better than leaving their windows open," Bitty says wistfully, before snapping his eyes back to Nursey, who has taken to snooping around the kitchen in search of pie. "Derek, hand over the glitter." 

Nursey pats his jacket pocket. 

"Oh fuck."

"Did you lose the glitter?" Nursey looks up, bites his lip. "Did you...did you climb all the way up the tree and not check if you had the glitter with you?" Nursey smiles weakly. 

"Chill, I was just, you know, scoping. Trying to figure out the best way to do it." Bitty sighs again before pulling a pie out of the oven and placing it in front of Nursey. 

"It's blackberry," Bitty says, handing him a serving knife and rolling his eyes. 

Just as he's about to cut a slice, the front door crashes open and Holster barrels into the kitchen, Ransom and Dex in tow. 

"What the fuck is wrong with the LAX bros?" Holster asks, hands thrown in the air dramatically. "They're all out on the lawn, fuckin' yelling at us." Bitty zeroes in on Nursey, whose hand is frozen mid air. Bitty raises his eyebrows and Nursey gestures helplessly. 

"Derek here decided to try and prank them. Glitter bomb their rooms. He fell out of the oak tree and landed on their lawn." Holster eyes shine. Bitty rolls his eyes before commandeering the serving knife. 

Before Holster could open his mouth, Dex snorts from behind Ransom. 

"While I admire your guts, that's some shit execution, Nurse. Hire an accomplice next time." Nursey flushes. Chill, chill, chill, he repeats in his head. 

"An accomplice...who did you have in mind?" Nursey was playing with him, honestly, just trying to rile him up at this point. Nursey watches in awe as heat floods the other boy's face and, in a blink, returns to its normal colour. Dex leans back against the counter, propping himself on his elbows, and shrugs. 

"What's your price?" Now it's Nursey's turn to blush. Dex's voice was...it was too lilting to be a chirp. 

"A kiss on the cheek?" He ventures, trying to sound as joking as possible. Dex groans and breathes out a laugh, before shoving his shoulder and picking up a slice of the pie Bitty had cut. Nursey couldn't help but stare at his his hands

"Jeez," Ransom whistles. Nursey looks up and Holster was side eyeing them. "You guys are worse than me and Holster in our junior year." Holster let out a strangled laugh before hiding it as a cough into his hand; Nursey glares at him. Holster pats his shoulder. 

"Don't think too hard about it, buddy."

"Or do," Ransom says with a wink. Dex burns red. 

_/\\_

A few weeks later, Nursey is drunk. 

"Are you gonna be okay to walk back, man?" Nursey grins, slowly, languidly, and slings his arm around the guy. He thinks his name is Matthew, but he's not totally sure. They're standing outside the apartment of one of the girls in their poetry club and Nursey can't remember actually leaving the living room. He remembers making out with some girl with buzzed hair and drinking, like, four shots of really, really good bourbon. 

"Yeah, man, it's only a ten minute walk!" He lets go of probably-Matthew and straightens up before stumbling a little and letting out a slow giggle. Matthew, who had one shot less than him and is nicely buzzed to Nursey's flat out sloshed, laughs at him. 

"You sound like, like. A tea kettle, or something." Matthew says, and his eyes crinkle. Nursey thinks back to how Dex's eyes crinkle when he laughs at him, and then he starts thinking about the tiny freckles next to his eyes, and then--

Nursey falls. 

"Fuck, Derek," Matthew says, and bends down to help Nursey up. They're both still laughing by the time Nursey is standing again. 

"I'm just a little wobbly," he says, and Nursey's grin is all teeth. "Ten minute walk," he reminds, and Matthew is just buzzed enough to let him walk off on his own. 

Ten minutes later, Nursey is definitely not back at his dorm. He's standing on the sidewalk of a park that, in his drunken stupor, he remembers being a fifteen minute drive from Samwell. He shrugs to himself, giggles, and then starts to climb the jungle gym. 

He kind of wishes that Matthew stayed with him, just so he could have someone with him on his park adventure. He kind of wishes that someone was Dex, but that's neither here nor there, so he lays back onto a slide and squints up at the stars, trying not to think about how the pinpricks of light look a bit like freckles. 

Nursey stands up and peers over the edge of the jungle gym. It's one of those really nice ones: it's three stories tall and has, like, four slides, and monkey bars, and a little climbing wall that juts down from an opening on the third floor. On the third floor, opposite one of the slides, was a climbing net. When he was a kid, his moms used to take him to a little park twenty minutes away from their apartment. It had a space net and a vendor that sold the best hot dogs he had ever had and it was always shrouded in willow trees. They stopped going when he was twelve; Nursey tried to find it last summer, but every time he tried, he just found trees and concrete and fast-walking people. He sat down on the edge where the climbing net started and carefully scooted until his feet were planted on the ropes. He stood up, then, turning around carefully so he could put his hands on the floor of the jungle gym and better secure his feet on the ropes. Nursey let out a victorious little yelp because ha, Bitty would never believe that he was climbing a jungle gym while drunk without killing himself. 

It was on the third step down, his right hand grasping and his right foot planted firmly on the ropes, that he miscalculated his step and his left leg went plummeting through the hole. He shrieked, once, and Nursey felt his whole body twist in the ropes. 

"What the fuck." He twisted a little, attempting to loosen the ropes. They tightened. "Fuck. What the fuck." He repeated and, in his drunken stupor, reached for his phone. His arm was pressed tight against his thigh making it easy to get his phone out of his pocket, but near impossible to get it to his ear. With a bit of wiggling he got the phone near his shoulder and called Bitty, the first name in his favourites--right above Dex and then his mothers. 

"Nursey." Bitty sounded about as disappointed as Nursey felt. 

"Um. Yes. I'm stuck."

"You're stuck,"

"There's, like, ropes and shit." Nursey isn't exactly sure what he's saying or how to explain his situation; he's still relatively drunk. There's wind whipping through the park, though, and he can feel himself sober up with every slap of the cold. Bitty is silent for what feels like an hour. 

"It's 11:39 pm," Bitty enunciates and Nursey let's out a small affirmative noise. "I'm sending Dex." Bitty says resolutely. In his drunken state, Nursey recognizes the flood of warmth to his face as a blush. 

"Oh. Okay." There's a shuffling noise on the other line and a few voices; he can hear the yells of garbled words and what sounded like game highlights. 

"Where are you?"

"Um. Um." He looks around, ignoring the soft click of impatience Bitty gives him. "That park next to the coffee shop Jack and Lardo used to go to all the time last year. It, uh, has the pond with the ducks and the fountains and--" 

"Alright, Dex!" Nursey vaguely registers that Bitty said something as he continues to ramble about the pond. "You're on Nursey Patrol." The line clicks off. 

Nursey waits. He watches the stars flicker and burn, and he waits. He thinks about how distinctly unchill his situation is, and he waits. He traces his eyes along the silhouette of the trees, and he waits. His eyes linger on the yellow glow of a street light, and he waits. He sees a figure stomping through the golden spray, and he waits. 

"Nursey?" The figure calls. Nursey is fully aware that it's Dex, he just doesn't really want it to be. He doesn't want Dex to come help him out and for Nursey to embarrass himself by waxing poetic about street lamps and his eyes and stars and his freckles. 

"Hi," he mumbles, shifting in the ropes. Dex's figure comes closer before bursting into laughter. 

"Oh my god, Nursey, what the fuck?" Dex is wheezing now, as if he hadn't seen Nursey in worse situations. 

"In my defense I was and continue to be slightly inebriated." Nursey says, bristling. 

"Derek." He can feel Dex's hand on his calf, inspecting where the ropes twist. 

"Very inebriated." He says, and Dex laughs. 

"We could cut this," Dex say, more to the ropes than Nursey. 

"No," his words sound more whiny than anything. In the shadow, he thinks Dex raises an eyebrow. 

"Alright." Dex slowly starts working his fingers around the knots and Nursey's body. 

He tries not to shiver, and he waits. He feels the burn of Dex's fingertips, and he waits. He feels his legs come free, then his arms, and he waits. Dex steps back. 

"I'm done," Dex says and Nursey can hear the quirk of his eyebrow in his voice. 

"Hi done, I'm tired." Nursey giggles, letting his body fall back against the ropes. They dig into the skin of his back. Dex groans. 

"Dude, this park is creepy. I saved you, let's go."

"This park is not creepy," Derek says indignantly, eyes falling closed. "This park has ducks." 

"I--okay." Dex says. Nursey feels the ropes give a little and then Dex's thigh is pressed against his. "I don't wanna have to carry you home."

"I'm gonna carry you home," Nursey mumbles. They sit in silence for a while, Nursey watching freckles bounce behind his eyelids. 

"You know you can just call me if you need help," Dex says hesitantly. Nursey opens his eyes and looks over; Dex is firmly staring at the sky but Nursey thinks his cheeks are tinged pink. Nursey thinks he looks like a galaxy. "Like, if there's an emergency. Or, or. Whatever the fuck this is," Dex laughs. "You can call me instead of Bitty." 

They leave a little while after that. Nursey tells him about the party he went to and Dex chirps him about how lost he got. The park was, apparently, only a five minute walk from his dorm. When they make it to his dorm, Nursey lets out a sigh of relief. 

"Uh," Dex says awkwardly, lingering in the doorway. Nursey walked in and stripped off his outer clothes then began rifling through his drawers. Nursey turned. 

"You can stay here if you want." Nursey ventures, trying to keep his voice level. 

"No, I'm, uh, I'm sober, I'm fine. I'm probably going to head back to the Haus, actually, I was helping Bitty." Nursey glances to the clock. The red numbers burned, 1:05. 

"Okay," and Nursey turns back to the drawers. "Thank you...forㅡthanks for helping me get unstuck, Dex." He mumbles and Dex breathes a laugh. 

"No problem, Derek," and the door clicked closed. Clutching a pair of sweatpants, Nursey feels his knees go loose; he slides to the floor. 

"Okay."

_/\\_

It's a Tuesday, and Nursey has a brilliant plan. He doesn't think it was as good as glitter bombing the LAX bros or getting a bunch of the guys on the water polo team to use lube as chapstick, but it's still pretty cool. 

"Bro, I'm gonna have to leave soon, I got class in the morning." Lardo has her phone out, flashlight shining. It's almost eleven. 

"Awww, Lards, come on!" They're standing on the rubbery soft floor of a jungle gym. It's not the same one he got stuck in over the weekend, but it's nice in that the floor isn't all sand or wood chips. They're both gripping razor scooters, and Lardo leans against the frame of the jungle gym. 

"Sorry, man," she laughs, and then looks at him thoughtfully. "Text Dex." She says with a shrug and Nursey forces a breath out from between his teeth. Nursey fishes his phone out of his pocket, ignoring Lardo's grin. 

'hey im at the park pls hurry' he types, then presses send. Lardo snickers again before climbing up the jungle gym; she bends down to grab the scooter and then rides it down the slide. She does a little spin at the end and Nursey grants her a golf clap. 

'Which one??' Dex texts back. 

'near the communications building' Derek types, and tacks on a kissy emoji for good measure. 

A few minutes later, he hears the slap of shoes against pavement and Dex is rounding the playground to stand next to Lardo, who was now looking for her back under the jungle gym. Derek looks up from where he was editing a video of Lardo. 

"Hey dude! Thanks for coming, can you film me while I ride this razor scooter down the twisty slide?" Dex's eyes flick to Lardo and then narrow. 

"What the fuck, Nurse, I thought this was an emergency." Nursey puts a hand over his chest, faux shock. 

"This is an emergency! Lardo's leaving, I need someone to watch over me and make sure I don't kill myself! It's precautionary, William." Lardo snickers. 

"I'm leaving." Dex deadpans. 

"Dex, come on." He whines. "You said I could text you in case of emergency!" Dex turns pink. 

"Like, a real emergency. You could just. Not such dumb shit, Nursey." 

"Impossible," Lardo breathes and punches Nursey in the shoulder. "Anyways, I'm leaving. And as your manager, Poindexter, it is in all of our best interests that you stay here and make sure your fellow d-man is in good enough condition to play on Friday!" Dex sighs, looks at Nursey. 

"Fuck, alright. Alright." Lardo shoves her scooter at him before stretching up and patting his shoulder. 

"Good man. Alright wish me luck, boys, I've got life drawing tomorrow." She shoulders her backpack and saunters off towards the direction of the Haus as both boys chirp a chorus of "good luck". 

"So you gonna do this or what?" Dex says, gesturing to the slide. 

"It's gonna be awesome," Nursey warns and hands his phone to Dex, the camera app open and flashlight on. Nursey starts climbing the rings of the ladder leading up to the second floor of the jungle gym and leans over to pluck the scooter off the floor next to Dex. 

"If you don't break your arm." Dex says, and there it is again, voice too soft to be a chirp, but too joking to be taken serious. Nursey flashes him a smile.

"If I broke my arm, would you take care of me?" 

"Sure, I'll feed you soup through a straw." 

"No, no, you spoon feed me or nothing."  
Dex looks at him, eyebrows raised. 

"Guess you're gonna have to starve." He turns back towards the slide. "Come on, Nurse, its fuckin' cold. Are you, uh, sober right now or should I be more concerned?" Nursey rolled his eyes, throwing one foot over the small metal scooter before hunching over and letting his hands fall into place over the foam. 

“I'm chill,” Nursey says and Dex groans. 

“Alright, it’s filming, let’s go.” So Nursey does. He pushes off, and the ground gives way to steep, stick plastic. The scooter is moving a lot faster than he expected and, on the second turn, rather than continuing along the path of the slide, Nursey tips over the shallow edge and goes flying face forward. He’s lying on the ground, rubber pressing against his shoulder. 

“Take two?” Dex calls from the other side of the slide. 

“Fuck you,” Nursey mumbles into the ground, and props himself up. 

“Is that all you got?” Dex teases. It's lame, and Nursey ignored it. 

“You still got Lardo’s scooter?” Nursey watches as Dex’s eyes widen dramatically. 

“No, no way. I'm not gonna do something to potentially break my arm.” He crosses his arms and Nursey really hopes Dex didn't notice how he watches the way his biceps moves as he goes to stand beside Dex. He notices, with annoyance, that his scooter made it down the slide, unharmed. 

“I think...you’re gonna do it.” Nursey says and Dex’s jaw tightens. Shoving Nursey’s phone at him, then, he grabs the scooter and starts climbing up to the top of the slide. Nursey watched as he resolutely looks over the edge and then pushes off. 

Where Nursey had fallen, Dex turns his weight towards the inside of the slide. He completes the third turn and the slide ends; there's a moment, where the scooter tips forward off the edge of the slide, where Nursey thinks he's going to fall, but he just lands, one foot pressed firmly against the scooter and the other skidding against the rubber floor. 

“Okay?” Dex says, urging Nursey to say something, and he realizes he didn't take a video. 

“Alright,” Nursey says, and that's that. “Wanna go get some frozen yoghurt?” 

Nursey gets six different flavours and every topping and Dex chirps him about how it's going to taste like shit; meanwhile, Dex spends ten minutes trying every flavour and combination before settling on coconut peach and chocolate caramel. Nursey watches, a little dumbstruck, at the way Dex pokes his tongue out to get the yoghurt out of the sample cup rather than slurping it out like a normal person. Nursey chirps him for that, weakly, and Dex just looks at him, eyebrow raised, and Nursey doesn't think he should feel this warm in a yoghurt shop. They pay. 

“Thanks for texting me,” Dex mumbles as they're walking back to their dorms. 

“I thought you only wanted me to text you if it's an emergency?” Nursey teases, and he almost stumbles, because that wasn't chirping. That...that was something heavier and Nursey doesn't want to think about that as he watches Dex take careful spoonfuls of his yoghurt, tongue pressed flat against the spoon, as moonlight and shitty fluorescent lamplight makes the edges of his form glow and his eyes burn amber. Nursey shakes his head, Dex shrugs. 

“I had fun.” And that's that. They walk in silence, for the most part, eating their yoghurt and watching the shadows flicker across the sidewalk. 

“Guess Nursey Patrol is gonna have to extend past kegsters.” Dex says, grinning, as they throw their trash away. 

“And you just signed up for it, indefinitely.” He responds, fingers flexing at his side, and Dex flushes. 

“Hey, if my defense partner gets hurt, my game is gonna be affected, too.” It's weak, they both know that, but Nursey nods anyways and breathes a laugh. Nursey is glad he and Dex live in the same housing because he doesn't really want the other boy to leave. Nursey notices, with a jolt, that they’re walking far closer to each other than usual. Chill, chill, chill, he repeats in his mind as he cautiously brushes his fingers against Dex’s. They're both facing forward, watching the space in front of them, and Nursey feels Dex freeze. A moment later, Dex’s fingers thread around Nursey’s and Nursey watches as the freckles on his ears disappear behind a deep blush. Nursey can’t help but bite his lip on a grin as he drops his head back and watches the stars. 

Dex walks him to his dorm and, for a second, Nursey thinks he’s going to kiss him. He rolls the thought around in his head, and it's pleasant. Instead, Dex drops his hand. He’s looking at Nursey fondly and the blush is still present on his face; Nursey can feel it's warmth from where he’s plastered himself against his door. 

“Night, Nursey.” Dex says softly, and runs a hand through his hair. Nursey wishes it was his hand. 

“Night, Dex.” He responds as Dex signs down the stairs to his own dorm. 

When Nursey gets inside, his cheeks are aching from how long he had been grinning. He flops down onto his mattress and pulls his phone out of his pocket. Absently, he opens up the phone app. In his favourites, right above Bitty, sits Dex’s name.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PINING. BABIES. stg  
> i completely moved away from the original concept of this fic leave me alone

“Happy birthday, Nurse.” Derek can feel Dex’s breath hot against his ear, feel the tickle of Dex’s hair against his cheek. It's only momentary, but it's momentous. Dex knows what he’s doing, Nursey fucking knows he does, because, when Dex pulls back from the brief hug, he’s failing to suppress a shit-eating grin that only serves to make Nursey more flustered. 

 

Dex has been doing that a lot lately, making Nursey flustered. Nursey is pretty sure he’s doing it on purpose, knows Derek notices when Dex checks him out or that the touches Dex leaves on his skin are more than friendly. It's been like this for the past two weeks; when they held hands on the way back to the dorm, something shifted. Nursey isn't sure what to make of it so, for the most part, he’s been trying to ignore it. Dex, on the other hand, is full of lingering glances and meaningful chirps designed to make Nursey’s skin go warm. 

 

“Thanks,” Nursey mumbles when Dex presses a small box into his palm. It's wrapped so meticulously, Nursey wonders if the other boy used a ruler to cut the paper; the paper itself is a metallic green, silver Christmas trees and deer slashing the page. Nursey snorts. “I like the paper.” There's even a red Christmas bow, under which Nursey’s name is scrawled; it reads ‘Derek’ in all caps. Dex shrugs, grins. 

 

“It was all I had.” They're sitting in Annie’s in a small booth near the windows; the light is pouring in through the blinds, leaving slanted golden lines across the bridge of Dex’s nose, his throat, his hair. Nursey swallows. “Are you gonna open it?” Dex asks with a smirk and sips his coffee. 

 

Nursey presses his finger under the wrapping paper, tearing it off in one fluid motion. He opens the box. In it is a set of three pocket Moleskines in varying shades of purple, a pack of ballpoint pens, and what looks like a scarf. He pulls that out first. It's knitted, each stitch extremely tight and extremely precise. The yarn is dark gold, speckled with bronze and red, and when Nursey holds it against his skin, the colours go so well together that he’s momentarily shocked. 

 

“Did you knit this?” Dex has the grace of turning a little pink, bashful, and the corner of his mouth quirks up as he steals another sip of his coffee. 

 

“I learned how when I was a kid. My grandma.” He said by way of explanation. 

 

“It's…” Nursey wraps it around his neck, tucking it under his coat. “I fucking love it.” He says firmly and Dex turns a little more red. 

 

“Good. Good, I'm glad.” He grins and lets out a nervous laugh. “I had no idea what to get you.” 

 

“Can't really go wrong with notebooks and homemade gifts.” Nursey muses as he places the box onto the seat next to him. He picks up the menu. “You think they have any Valentine’s specials if we say we’re a couple?” 

 

“I'm pretty sure you get free pancakes if it’s your birthday.” Dex says, not meeting the other boy’s eyes. 

 

“But can I get red velvet pancakes, is the question.” Dex rolls his eyes. “What, you have something against red velvet?”

 

“It’s overrated as fuck.” Dex snorts. 

 

“You heathen, take that back! What the hell are you gonna get? An omelette?” Now it’s Dex’s turn to look insulted. 

 

“Don't say that like it's a bad thing, you know full well that Annie’s has the best goddamn omelettes in Massachusetts.” They're quiet for a moment, Nursey holding eye contact with Dex through squinted eyes. 

 

“Probably the world,” he concedes and that’s that. 

 

Fifteen minutes later, Dex has an omelette stuffed with feta, tomatoes, and bacon and Nursey is overwhelmed with a stack of heart-shaped red velvet pancakes. There’s even tiny pink and red sprinkles, heart-shaped, and Nursey is so so satisfied with his decision. 

 

“Fuck, do you smell these?” Nursey practically moans. “This is heaven…I don't even believe in heaven but I'm pretty sure this is what it smells like, what the fuck.” Dex’s eyebrows are raised and he breathes a laugh before his lips slowly curl up into a grin. 

 

“Chill, Nurse.” 

 

“Fuck you, Poindexter, I’m gonna enjoy my cake for breakfast and you can deal with your feta.” Nursey says, waving a hand over his plate. Dex shrugs before tucking into his omelette. The pancakes taste even better than they smell. Nursey groans and Dex’s eyes flick up. 

 

“Enjoying yourself?” Nursey just groans in response. 

 

“This is the best day of my life.” Dex’s shoulders shake in silent laughter. 

 

“Glad I could be here for it.”

 

“Don't get all sentimental on me, Dexy, the day would be approximately ten times better if Chowder was here with me.” It's a weak chirp; Nursey has been making a lot of those lately, his chirping game has just been so _off_. “Wanna try them?” Nursey is already cutting a bite for Dex and holding it out. He had assumed Dex would grab the fork from him, like a _normal goddamn person,_ and for a moment he thinks he’s right, as Dex’s arm jerks up towards the fork before falling back to the table; instead, Dex leans forward, making eye contact with the other boy for a split second, before wrapping his lips around the fork and _Jesus fucking Christ_ Nursey is feeding Dex and the light from the window is bathing Dex in golden light and his eyelashes are fanning dark shadows over his cheeks and it’s too much, too much for Nursey. His breath catches. Dex whispers a moan. 

 

“Fuck you, Nurse.” Nursey shakes out of his reverie. “These are awesome.” 

 

“Better than your omelette?” Dex shrugs. 

 

“I dunno, feta is betta’.” Nursey chokes out a laugh. 

 

“Oh my _god,_ you are so _lame.”_ Nursey is laughing too fucking hard and Dex grins. “I'm glad you're here with me.” Nursey says before he can stop himself. “Fuck, wait, I mean--” 

 

“Me too,” Dex says simply and moves to grab another forkful of Nursey’s pancakes.

 

By the end of the meal, Dex has most definitely eaten half of Nursey’s pancakes and Nursey has most definitely eaten a good portion of Dex’s omelette. If anyone asked, Nursey would deny that Dex fed him every bit of that omelette. Not that anyone would ask, no one assumes anything, they’re not giving anyone anything to _assume._ Nursey thinks he’s going crazy as Dex signs the check and tucks his card back into his wallet. 

 

“You didn't need to do that,” Nursey says, referring to Dex having paid for the meal, as they leave Annie’s.

 

“Your pancakes were free, dude, it's not a big deal.” Dex says and he is so so close to Nursey as they walk back to the Haus. Nursey wants to grab his hand, to hold on like it's the only goddamn thing anchoring him to the living world, and he wants to kiss Dex, to hold his face between his hands and absolutely wreck him, taste every freckle and _what the fuck is wrong with him_. He knows he needs to get a hold of himself: maybe Dex was interested in him in the same way Nursey was but Nursey couldn't handle the rejection, couldn't afford losing Dex or making things uncomfortable if that wasn't the case. 

 

“You alright?” Dex asks, looking at him inquisitively. 

 

“Yeah,” Nursey says quietly. “I’m pretty great, honestly.” Dex slings an arm around his shoulder, squeezing Nursey against his chest roughly and it’s literally the bro-est thing ever that Nursey’s chest catches a little. 

 

“Good,” and they're at the Haus now; Dex drops his arm. Nursey is almost positive he can smell chocolate pecan pie. 

 

“How much pecan pie do you think I could eat after those pancakes?” 

 

“Bro,” Dex offers and Nursey smirks. 

 

“I'm gonna die today.” Nursey is almost positive he would be okay with that. The only thing that would make it better would be if Dex--no, no, no, Nursey wasn't going to finish that though. Instead, he wrenches the door to the Haus open and follows the cloudy scent of sticky pecan and chocolate to the kitchen. 

 

_/\\_

 

“What the fuck is this,” Dex groans and Nursey looks up. They're sitting under one of the trees next to the pond; it took Nursey many, many tries, but he ultimately convinced Dex of the purifying effects of nature while trying to suffer through page after page of calculus homework. 

 

“Aren't you supposed to be, like, good at this shit?” Nursey asks, putting his book down to peer up at Dex from where he’s lying, stomach down. 

 

“Look, computers, I get that shit, you know? It makes sense and. Math makes sense, too, for the most part, but this advanced derivative shit and differential equations and…I did not sign up for this.” He groans and Nursey breathes a laugh. 

 

“You kind of did, bro, in October when we chose classes. Also, you're in honors, so you had _first pick._ You could have chosen anything but _that,_ ” he gestures to the mess of scratched out numbers on Dex’s paper. Dex glares at him, hard, but it lacks venom. 

 

“Shuddup,” he mumbles and flops down next to Nursey. “You’re already distracting me too much to concentrate.” Dex’s eyes are closed, thankfully, so he can't see as Nursey face flashes a dark maroon. 

 

“What the fuck,” Nursey states. “I'm just reading my book.” Dex opens one eye, puts his arms under his head. He's looking at Nursey with this _expression_ and as much as Nursey really wants to lean over and kiss him, he doesn't think he's ready to have a conversation about it, not right now. And he wants to have a conversation about it, he really does, but he doesn't think he could handle it without his chest literally caving in from how hard his heart thumps when he thinks about doing _anything_ with Dex. He's so gone. He knows it. 

 

Dex shrugs but, in his position, it's more a delicate movement of his elbows. Nursey can't stop staring at the freckles on the underside of his arms. Why is Dex wearing a short sleeve shirt right now, it's Frebruary, _god._

 

“You're a loud reader,” he says and Nursey wants to scream because what does that mean. Instead, Nursey flips over so he's on his back next to Dex, staring up at the canopy of trees above them as he focuses on maintaining a semblance of distance between them. 

 

“I think,” Dex begins, stops, clears his throat. “If I were to ever get a tattoo, I’d want there to be trees. Probably pines, like the ones that grow on the coast.” Nursey’s brain is short-circuiting. 

 

“Oh,” he says and Dex laughs and shoves his shoulders. 

 

“I’d probably get it somewhere on my arms, or maybe my side, yanno?” He continues and _why are they talking about this._

 

“Why’d you wanna cover up your freckles?” Nursey blurts and he wants to die. He wants to go back to his dorm and shovel what's left of his birthday pie down his throats until he can't think anymore because _what the fuck._ Nursey chances a glance at Dex and the other boy is so pink, eyes wide as he watches a nest of birds above them. 

 

“Uh,” Dex ventures, voice thick. “I'm not all that attached.” He says and Nursey wants to leave, immediately. 

 

“Alright,” he says and tries to salvage the conversation. “So when would you wanna get your tattoo?” Dex settles, wiggling his arms until he's comfortable again. Nursey can feel the warmth radiating off him despite their distance. “Also, aren't you _cold?”_ Dex laughs. 

 

“Nah, I'm good. And, ah, I've been thinking about it for a while, yanno? I've wanted tattoos since I was a kid. I went through a bit of a rebellious phase.” Nursey wheezes out a laugh. 

 

 _“A rebellious phase?_ What does that even mean?” And Dex is laughing too, now, and Nursey feels so, so warm. 

 

“I, uh, I used to listen to a lot of punk music, okay, don't laugh. I went to shows a lot, it was like. My thing, for a while.” Dex’s eyes are closed again and he's biting his lip nervously. “I had my ears pierced,” Nursey gasps, laughs. “My mom yelled at me, like, every week to cut my hair, it was so long. My brother tried to convince her it was a hockey thing, flow and all that, but she was fuckin’ scared that I was getting into drugs.” Dex pauses. “I mean, she wasn't totally wrong, but I never did anything _bad.”_ Nursey isn't exactly sure where this bout of openness came from; he and Dex were getting along nowadays, probably more than getting along, but they hadn't really had much of a sharing session like this, especially one so unprecedented. 

 

“I got my eyebrow pierced when I was 15,” Nursey offers and Dex barks a laugh. 

 

“That's so gay, dude.” Dex says, still grinning. 

 

“That's what my mom said, too, and my other mom just _agreed with her,_ like, what?” And they’re giggling again, faces turned towards the trees. Nursey turns on his side, props himself up on one arm so he has leverage over Dex. “You know I'm not gonna rest until I see photos of you in your ‘rebellious phase’, yeah?” Dex sighs, resigned. 

 

“I have them hidden on Facebook.”

 

“God, why are you _telling_ me this?” Nursey slips, shaking his head. “This is prime chirping material.” 

 

“Because I feel like if I didn't, you would try to call my family and you _know_ they would mail the photo book the next day. My family loves you, it's disgusting.” He scowls but he's still relaxed, eyes shining. 

 

“Ooh, do they ask about me?” Nursey presses against Dex’s shoulder and his ears pinken. 

 

“Yeah, actually.” He says simply before pushing a strand of hair out of his face. It's been growing out lately, heavy curls poking out from behind his ears, and Nursey doesn't think he’s ever been so paralyzed by someone’s hair. There's just _so much_ of it now and it's _so red._ “They invited you for spring break, if you wanted to come.” They invited Nursey over for the previous Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well, and while it was a little uncomfortable, Nursey felt more welcome there than he ever did with his own family. 

 

“Oh,” he starts. Dex’s eyebrows flicker through a dozen different emotions. 

 

“Oh?”

 

“No, I don't mean like. Bad oh. Just like...that's cool. That you guys talk about me, that they care about me, I don't know.” And Nursey is blushing again and he's never chill around Dex, but this is getting out of hand. Dex just laughs, rubs his mouth. 

 

“Oh. Okay. So, do you want to? It'll probably be kinda boring, I dunno.”

 

“Um, okay, well, my family is gonna be out of town, obviously, so I was going to see if you and Chowder wanted to stay the week? I asked him and Farmer last week and they just said they had to ask their parents if it was cool. Their selling point’s that they don't have to buy tickets back to California.” Nursey rambles. “So, yeah, you should come, at least for a few days?” Nursey knows how hopeful he sounds and he hopes Dex doesn't recognize it for what is it. The other boy scratches the back of his neck, thinking, then blushes furiously. 

 

“Man, I can't afford New York for a week.” They're at this point in their friendship, now, where Dex and Nursey can discuss their disadvantages without screaming at each other. Nursey thinks it's kind of incredible. 

 

“Bro, we’ll probably leave Mass on Sunday and then leave New York the following Sunday so that’s what? Six days? We can chill at home for most of the week and, like, if we go out, it's my treat, okay? Just,” he falls back on his arms again, staring at the canopy and pointedly avoiding Dex’s slowly furrowing brow and opened mouth. “Let me do this, okay? I mean, if you wanna go back to Maine because you miss your family, I get it!” He backtracks hurriedly. “But if not, like. It would be cool if you came.” He's breathing kind of heavy now, just barely noticeable but Nursey is still embarrassed about it. Dex is quiet. Nursey chances a glance in his reflection; Dex is looking down at the grass, eyebrows so pinched it looks painful. Finally, he takes a deep breath. 

 

“My brother doesn't have vacation until two weeks later. My parents will probably be working late. The only time I would see them would probably be on the weekends. So. Yeah, okay. As long as you promise not to take us to do ridiculously expensive and frivolous things, then. Then, sure, let's do it.” And Nursey didn't expect to get a yes that easy and his heart almost bursts. 

 

“What about one frivolous thing?” 

 

“No.”

 

“What if I run it by Chowder and Farmer? What if it’s not that frivolous and you’re just being ridiculous?” Dex side-eyes him, rolls his eyes. 

 

“What the fuck, fine. I'm gonna regret this, aren't I?” Nursey smirks. 

 

“We’re gonna have so much fun.”

 

_/\\_

 

“Heh, Rans, look at this, this is us.” Holster shows Ransom something on his phone and the other boy lights up. 

 

“Bro,” he coos and Dex lets out an exasperated sigh. 

 

“Can you guys just _text_ each other disgustingly cute couple memes rather than force us to experience them with you? You know, like normal people?” Ransom and Holster zero in on Dex, grinning. 

 

“Dexy, please tell the room exactly what you know about “disgustingly cute couple memes”.” Holster says, his glasses and air quotations making him look much more authoritative than he is. Dex just scoffs and goes back to his computer. 

 

“He's sensitive because he got turned down by some kid in his Intro to Soc class earlier,” Chowder loudly stage whispers and Nursey, who had been relatively focused on his homework before, flicks his eyes up in alarm. Quickly, he smooths his expression out to his “chirping face”. 

 

“William, please, spill.” Ransom demands. Dex is a brilliant shade of red. 

 

“I just,” he groans frustratedly and scrubs at his mouth. “Chowder,” he looks at the other boy pleadingly. Chowder shrugs slightly, not looking up from his own computer. “I don't know, I wasn't thinking and I asked him if he wanted to get coffee or something and it didn't go well, okay?” Holster and Ransom snicker and Ransom, who is next to Dex on the couch, throws an arm around the younger boy. 

 

“Awh, Dexy, it's okay. You're a catch, buddy, you'll find someone who can look past your hot bod and stunning intellect.” Dex, impossibly, burns redder. 

 

“Please, shut up.” He pleas and shrugs out of Ransom’s grip. 

 

“Who was it, anyways?” Holsom asks and Chowder smirks. 

 

“Alex Price.” He says and he’s looking at Nursey when he says it and Nursey feels his throat close up as Dex lets out a wounded noise. Holster and Ransom shrug. “He's a freshman, so, you probably wouldn't know him.” Chowder informs but, God, _Nursey_ knows him. He and Chowder had a class with Price last semester and their professor constantly mistook him and Nursey for each other; hell, when Nursey first saw the kid he was momentarily taken aback by how similar they looked. So. _So._ This is news to Nursey and he doesn't know what to do with it. He isn't sure if Dex has a type, but for a long second he finds himself hoping that that's the case. 

 

“Alex Price.” Nursey says slowly and he and Chowder lock eyes. He smiles, small, and gives a one shouldered shrug. Dex still hasn't taken his eyes off of his computer. Nursey tries to go back to his homework. He’s outlining a paper for a class he's taking with a focus on race’s place in sex and gender and he kind of loves it but, Jesus Christ, he can't fucking focus anymore. Ten minutes of Nursey flipping through his textbook and notes, highlighting random things, and looking blankly at his outline go by. He lets out an exasperated sigh and starts gathering up his things. 

 

“I'm going to the library.” 

 

“I'm gonna go to the library.”

 

Dex turns red, hand hovering over his recently closed computer. 

 

“Um.” He returns Nursey’s deer-in-headlights look. “I'll go to my dorm.”

 

“Nah, nah, dude, go to the library, it's fine. I need caffeine, I think I'll just go to Annie’s.” He says, still shoving his stuff into his messenger bag. Dex scratches the back of his neck, his mouth quirking up as if he had smelled something foul. 

 

“I'll see you guys,” he says and is out the door a second later. Nursey slows his packing; Holster, Ransom, and Chowder stare at him. 

 

“I could really go for caffeine and an inane amount of sugar right now.” Chowder says, painfully obvious and painfully chipper. 

 

“Of course.” Nursey concedes, closing the clasps on his bag and getting up stiffly. Chowder follows him out. 

 

“You’re a dumbass, Nurse.” Chowder says as the door slams shut and they're greeted by frigid winter air. 

 

 _“What?”_ Nursey gasps, nearly yells. 

 

“Price is, like, the dollar store version of you. We had that class together last semester and I sat between you two for like, the majority of the semester.” Nursey sighs. 

 

“Yes, and?” 

 

“And nothing,” he says, opening the door to Annie’s for him. “And nothing, except for the fact that you’re one of Dex’s best friends and isn't it a little strange that he asked out someone who looks just like you and isn't it a little strange how you make sweet little heart eyes at him whenever you think he isn't looking?” 

 

“I do not!” Nursey shouts indignantly, wincing as half of Annie’s patrons whip around to look at him. “I do not,” he says, bringing his voice down. “Make heart eyes at Dex. What the fuck, C.” He squints at the menu. 

 

“It's _cute.”_ Chowder pushes. “But you should do something about it.” 

 

“What do you mean?” Nursey says and it comes out more like a statement, all fake confusion. Chowder rolls his eyes. 

 

“You have a crush on Dex.” He explains, emphasizing each syllable with a poke to Nursey’s chest. 

 

“A crush, C? What is this, middle school?” Nursey asks because, well, it's not a crush. It's more than a crush and, as dumb as Nursey feels to think that, it's true. It's real and it's big and it hurts. 

 

“You're not denying it.” 

 

“I know,” and it's their turn to order. Chowder orders something with too much cinnamon and too much caramel and Nursey does the same, but with chocolate and vanilla. Nursey, without question, pays. They sit down at a small round table near the windows. 

 

“So, you know?” Chowder asks and takes a sip of his coffee. “Crap, ah.” He yelps, and swallows quickly. “I burnt my tongue.” He says forlornly, looking up at Nursey with those puppy dog eyes and Nursey’s laughter dies on his lips. 

 

“Are you trying to make me feel bad for you so I'll answer all your questions?” 

 

“Nah, but that would be a cool perk.” He says and Chowder’s puppy dog eyes get sadder. 

 

“Oh my god, stop, please.” He says and Nursey leans back in his chair, laughing. 

 

“Alright, alright. But seriously, dude, what's up?” 

 

“Ehhhhhh.” Nursey groans, dropping his head into his arms. “Ehhhhh, ughh.” 

 

“Mm, articulate.” Chowder says, opening the lid of his coffee and blowing on it. 

 

“I don't know.” Nursey concedes. 

 

“Do you like him?” 

 

“No,” Nursey lies. “Okay, I don't know, yes, kind of, I guess, I don't _know._ I,” he lifts his head up from his arms. “I feel a lot of things about Dex and they're becoming increasingly more sappy and ridiculous and I want to die, C, it's so ridiculous. I'm. What the fuck, I'm so into him it _hurts.”_ Nursey admits and Chowder looks a little astonished. “What?”

 

“Like, I knew you liked him but I didn't realize you were half in love with him.” 

 

“I'm--I’m not! I just. He's so beautiful, Chowder, one person shouldn't be that beautiful, it's not fair.” And he drops his head into his arms again. “I'm so gone over him, man.” 

 

“You know he probably likes you too.” Chowder says and when Nursey looks up, he’s leaning into his palm and looking at Nursey so thoughtfully. Nursey shrugs. 

 

“Maybe.” He sips his coffee. “Maybe you’re reading into it. Maybe Dex genuinely likes Alex Price and I'm destined to have a massive, disgusting crush on one of my best friends for the rest of the foreseeable future.” Chowder sighs. 

 

“Well, I have a good way to forget about it for a little bit.” Nursey hums to indicate he’s listening. “You can help me write my paper for our sex and gender class?” 

 

“Everything sucks.” Nursey says, but pulls the materials for his essay out anyways. Chowder pats his back, sips his coffee, and Nursey feels himself relax, a bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so what the fuck. I was just planning on tacking on a second chapter to tie everything up that would end with Nursey and Dex making out and being in love but then I decided to throw a plotline into the mix along with too much pining and Chowder and my fav personal headcannon that is pop punk Dex (http://kaleidoscopeparson.tumblr.com/post/152998973670/introducing-a-headcannon-tirelessly-crafted-by CHECK IT!!).  
> Anyways. I'm just stoked abt the update on Monday and Christmas and I'm kind of a wreck about it.  
> Comments n kudos n subscriptions are always appreciated!  
> Find me on tumblr @ kaleidoscopeparson or softcoresewerbats


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to a goddamn wreck.

Dex avoids Nursey for a total of three and a half days--three days, nine hours, and twenty minutes, give or take--before trudging into Chowder’s room, throwing his bag on the ground, and flopping into Chowder’s desk chair. Chowder, entirely consumed by his homework, doesn't notice Dex’s arrival; Nursey looks up. 

 

“Sup?” He says, carefully, because Dex looks pissed and Nursey doesn't want to deal with that anger directed at him, as it so usually is. Dex lets out a long suffering sigh. 

 

“Nothing,” he says, raking his hand through his hair. It puffs up and Nursey attempts to hold back a laugh. “I fuckin’ bombed that calc exam.”

 

“Oh. Shit, sorry man.” Nursey responds, a little surprised as he watches the anger slowly, so slowly, leak out of Dex. Just a few months ago Dex would have come in looking for a fight, now he just presses against Chowder’s desk chair and stares at the ceiling, face mild. 

 

“Midterms are next week, I just. I just need to ace them and my grade should be safe, I hope.” He says, cheeks puffing up as he heaved a sigh. 

 

“And then spring break.” Dex looks at Nursey, face still blank. “You still gonna come with us? To New York?” Dex stares at him, imploringly, eyes searching Nursey’s face; he can feel his skin prickle where Dex’s eyes hit. He falls back again, looks out Chowder’s window. 

 

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.” 

 

“‘Swawesome.” Nursey responds, heart beating too quickly, and returns to his homework. 

 

Two weeks later, midterms are over and Nursey escapes them with only one mild panic attack and three rants expressing his desire to drop out. He considers it a success, considering he had to practically babysit Dex and Chowder the night before their comp sci midterm to ensure neither of them tried to pull an all nighter and give themselves caffeine poisoning or have a complete mental breakdown. 

 

Early Sunday morning, Nursey is in the Haus waiting for Chowder to finish packing. He left him up in his room with Farmer; it was taking Chowder way too long considering he only had to pack for a week and Nursey was starting to think they weren’t doing much packing. Ultimately, they're waiting for Dex to show up before they leave anyways, so Nursey isn't too perturbed. Nursey shrugs to himself, settles further into the couch, and flicks through his twitter feed, his instagram, then settles on tumblr. He can hear Ransom and Holster in the kitchen, chirping Bitty about something and rattling the sin bin. Nursey’s glad someone is doing Dex’s dirty work because he is way too comfortable to collect for the dryer find right now. Soon, he feels himself drifting off to sleep, the boys’ voices fading in and at as he slips out of consciousness. 

 

“Reeeeeeeaady!” Nursey jerks up. 

 

“What.” He asks blurrily, squinting in the direction of Chowder’s voice. He can feel a weight on his lap and looks down; a pair of legs are crossed across his thighs. “What.” He asks again and looks over to see Dex tapping at his phone. “How long have you been here?” Dex looks up and offers a tiny smirk. 

 

“Twenty minutes, tops? Tried to find Chowder but his door was locked.” Dex laughs, looking back down at his phone. He looks so comfortable, so breathtaking, spread out on the couch, on _Nursey_ , eyes lidded slightly and left arm slung lazily over the back of the couch. Nursey doesn't want to look away, he wants to reach out and touch his face, his chest his arms. He drops his hand to Dex’s knee, resting it there as innocently as possible. “See something you like?” Dex chirps, snapping Nursey back to reality, and that goddamn smirk is back and his his head is tipped back, pale neck on full display. 

 

“What?” He asks again. Nursey realizes that that’s the only word he has said since he woke up. 

 

“I'm kidding. Fuck, though, do you want me to drive the first leg? You look exhausted.”

 

“Um, Chowder was gonna drive the first two hours, but if you want to take over for the next two, that would be ‘swawesome.” He mumbles and then coughs to clear the sleep from his throat. He was probably only asleep for fifteen minutes but he feels like was asleep for fifteen hours. 

 

“You guys ready?” Chowder asks poking his head out from the kitchen. He has a large Tupperware container whose lids looks fasted down with duct tape. Nursey spots mini pies and what looks like chocolate chip cookies. 

 

“Thanks, Bitty!” Nursey shouts from his spot on the couch. 

 

“Just don't do anything stupid while you're away!” Bitty sing-songs back. Dex absolutely cackles. 

 

“I'll take care of him!” Dex shouts and Nursey goes warm, again. 

 

“Nursey Patrol!” The entire Haus choruses. 

 

_/ \\_

 

“Okay, fuck you, driver gets to pick the music.” 

 

“Okay, well, I bought snacks _and_ this is my car.” Nursey responds as he swings his body into the passenger seat. Dex folds himself into the seat next to him. They've gassed up, bought more Gatorade and trail mix than they could have ever needed, and the skies were incredibly clear. Perfect driving conditions. Nursey sighs pleasantly and settles into the passenger seat. It's his car, so he isn't super used to being a passenger and, damn, is it comfortable. He was in the back with Farmer for the first two hours of the trip because, apparently, her and Chowder couldn't keep their hands to themselves, even when Chowder was driving. Now, the pair was cuddled in the back, watching what sounded like Harry Potter on Farmer’s laptop. 

 

“Driver picks music so they're not distracted by whatever nasty hipster shit you were gonna play.” Dex says, nose scrunched in disgust. 

 

“Alternately, driver shouldn’t pick music because then they'll be distracted by, like, singing or whatever.” Dex looks at him, eyebrow cocked and mouth set firmly. 

 

“You've never seen me drive, Nurse, I promise I'm _very_ safe.” Dex says, pulling the seatbelt across his chest and snapping it into place. Nursey doesn't know if it's the way Dex delivered that last sentence or if it's the sight of Dex in Nursy’s drivers seat, looking too at ease in a car he hadn't ever drive, that burns his skin, but he feels a blush crawling up his neck and his comeback chirp dying in his tongue. 

 

“Alright, you get first hour.” Dex just smirks. Turns out, Dex didn't exclusively listen to dad rock. 

 

“Who is this?” Nursey asks, peering at the LED screen between them. It’s set to climate, displaying little fan symbols. 

 

“Title Fight.” He says, eyes glued to the road in front of them. “It's their newer stuff. Little softer.” He says and takes a swig of his Gatorade. Nursey watches his Adam’s apple jump behind thin freckled skin. 

 

“I've never heard you play them.” Nursey says, sipping his Gatorade quickly after to keep from saying anything else. Dex smiles half heartedly. 

 

“I, uh, don't really like to play my music around people I don't--” he pauses, thinks; his mouth twists. “People I don't totally trust.” He says it quietly: Nursey barely hears it, knows Chowder and Farmer don't. Nursey hums tunelessly to acknowledge Dex’s statement, his brain a little too shocked to do anything else. Dex _trusts_ him. Nursey doesn't know what to do with that information so he continues to stare at Dex, who watches the road with fervent interest. His neck is a little pink. Nursey wants to press his fingers to the skin. Fuck.

 

“Uh, um. So what does their harder stuff sound like?” Nursey asks, cutting through the frigid tension. Dex looks at him finally, that same searching look that he gave him two weeks ago in Chowder’s room. He grabs his phone, flicking his eyes between the road and the device. There aren't that many people on the road, luckily. Finally he settles on something new. It starts off a lot more sweeping and gravelly than the previous album. 

 

“It's not exactly hard, but it's harder.” He says, enunciating the last syllable clearly, gesticulating with his hands half on the wheel. He's side eyeing Nursey, that half smile back on his face. They settle into a comfortable silence, Nursey watching the trees whip past them as he focuses on the music. Dex is mumbling along, his voice sweet and melodic in a way Nursey never would have expected. Nursey listens as Dex gets bolder, his voice gets louder, the slight nervousness that Nursey assumes was from showing someone his music slipping from his shoulders, his neck. Dex is graceful and beautiful and Nursey _wants_. 

 

“Your voice, in the back of my head, murdering the silence, consistent like a ritual.” Dex murmurs along with the vocalist and, god, the words feel like the worst check imaginable; he feels each word reverberating in his head, each syllable burrowing into his psyche and making a home there, latching onto all of the places Dex already inhabited. Nursey pushes further back into his seat; he kind of wishes he was just listening to Dex alone, without the music blaring. He imagines, for a fleeting second, that Dex was singing to him, running a hand down his neck, through his hair, and crooning softly into his ear. Nursey shivers. Dex looks at him. 

 

“You okay?” 

 

“Yeah, uh. Cold.” He says, shooting his hand out to fiddle with the climate control. Dex laughs. 

 

“Shit circulation.” He mumbles and then returns to singing. 

 

“So you _are_ the kind of person who sings in the car, huh? Distracted driving is dangerous driving, Dexy.” Nursey opens, dropping his head against the window and watching Dex. The other boy glares at him. 

 

“Yes, but I'm still a safer driver than you, probably.” 

 

“Hey! Rude, you've never even seen my drive.”

 

“No, but I've seen you do just about everything else and I know you'd benefit from having airbags near you at all times.” Dex points out. Nursey crosses his arms and huffs.

 

“I'm a great fucking driver.”

 

“You're from _New York City_ , I’m surprised you even have your license, man.” Dex laughs, eyes getting all squinty in the way that makes Nursey’s joints feel like jello. 

 

“It took me two tries.” Nursey mutters, quietly. Dex laughs even harder. 

 

“You're not helping your case.”

 

“Fuck you, Poindexter.” Dex shrugs, grins. 

 

“Sure.” And _oh_ , that's. That's. Something Nursey really, really wants, but he doesn't think he could say it out loud without _actually bursting into flames._

 

“Hey, Dex, can we stop real quick?” Chowder pipes up from the back, saving Nursey from saying something ridiculously incriminating. Chowder still has an earphone sticking out of his ear and Farmer is pressed against his side, Chowder’s laptop propped on her knees. Dex’s eyes flick up to the rear view mirror. 

 

“Dude, we literally stopped, like, an hour ago.” Dex all but whined. 

 

“Bro, it's my turn for music!” Nursey interjects up and Dex glared at him again. 

 

“Not the time, Nurse. But, Chowder, what? Why do you need to stop?” 

 

“I need to pee, like, hella bad.” Farmer explains sheepishly. Dex’s face softens. “I may have drunk two Gatorades in the past hour.”

 

“Well, if it's for Farms.” He says and starts to pull to the right lane; the next exit is about five miles off. 

 

“Love you, Dexy.” She laughs and begins detangling herself from Chowder. They park outside a McDonald's and Farmer jumps out immediately. “Thanks again.” She says and jogs towards the door. 

 

“Okay!” Nursey explains, grabbing the aux cord excitedly. “Time for Half Moon!” 

 

“You just like that band because you think the singer is hot.” Chowder points out and, _fucking christ_ , Nursey could throttle him. 

 

“Bro, this band’s music is next level ‘swawesome, the attractiveness of the band members is only icing on the cake.” 

 

“What does he look like?” Dex asks around a handful of trail mix. He offers the bag to Nursey silently and he picks out a handful of raisins and almonds. 

 

“Uh, hot.” Nursey says nervously, popping an almond into his mouth. Chowder rolls his eyes from the back seat before picking up his phone and, a few moments later, Dex’s phone pings loudly. 

 

“Oh.” Dex says, eyes focused on his phone screen and a dark blush crawling up his cheeks. “Okay.” He says, eyes locking with Nursey as he drops his phone into his lap. Caitlin Farmer, absolute goddess of saving Nursey from awkward situations, chooses that moment to loudly open the back seat and crawl back in. 

 

“Hi.” Her eyebrows furrow and she looks from Dex to Nursey then back to Dex. “What did I miss?” She asks and Chowder just laughs before wrapping an arm around her. Dex turns the ignition back on, blush still dark against his skin. 

 

‘what did u do’ Nursey types quickly, shooting off a text to Chowder, whose smile grows absolutely fiendish against the crown of Farmer’s head. She’s grinning now, too, peering at Chowder’s phone screen. 

 

_chowder!! sent an image_

 

Nursey opens it quickly and, yeah, it’s the vocalist of Half Moon and _yeah_ it’s a freckly ginger kid with hard eyes and soft cheeks and Nursey isn't about to admit he has a type but he isn't going _deny it_ , either. 

 

‘i hate u???’ Nursey responds and is granted an illustrious response of three kissy emojis. 

 

‘make a move already’ Farmer texts him a few minutes later, after they set back up Chowder’s computer. Nursey glares at his phone then twists around to glare at Farmer; her eyes are glued to the computer screen, but there's still a hint of a smile on her lips. 

 

_/ \\_

 

“What the fuck. What the _fuck?_ ” Dex drops his bag to the ground as he steps into Nursey’s home. 

 

“Nursey, this is so sick, oh my god.” Chowder gushes, rushing in and peeking down the hallways, into the kitchen, the foyer closet, the bathroom. Nursey trails in last, following Farmer as she watches her boyfriend fondly, and locks the door behind him. 

 

“Yeah,” he agrees because, as bittersweet as coming home is, he knows how nice the place is. It's lavishly furnished, meticulously painted, and the lighting is just dim enough to make it seem homey and lived in; he loves his home, he really does, he just misses his parents. He gives himself another few moments of introspections before hunting down his friends. 

 

“I’m pretty sure there’s water in the fridge. I can make coffee or tea, and the liquor cabinet is always well stocked.” He informs them, finding Dex and Farmer at the island where they were watching Chowder marvel at the kitchen. 

 

“I think Bitty would cry if he saw this.” Dex says by way of answer. “But I'll have some tea.” Nursey blinks. 

 

“Oh, okay. Uh, black, chai, or peppermint?” 

 

“Surprise me.” Dex says and Nursey tries to ignore the look on Farmer’s face: she looks like she wants to chirp him something fierce, eyes wide and gleeful and _dangerous_. 

 

“Farmer?” Nursey asks, teeth gritted slightly. 

 

“Whatever Dex is having.” She replies sweetly. Nursey turns to the liquor cabinet and grabs a bottle of brandy, pouring a bit into his tea cup before brewing a large pot of chai tea. His eyes flick to the clock. 

 

“It's only five,” he begins. “Uh, I don't know if you guys wanna stay in tonight or play tourist, but there's a really good pizza place down the street or, like, the best Indian food ever is across the street. We can call both in, though.” He says, digging through the cupboards to find honey. He knows there isn't milk, so he hopes no one takes it in their tea. Farmer grabs her cup, the honey, the brandy. 

 

“Pizza sounds awesome,” she says, blowing on her mug. 

 

“I'm down to stay in, but I don't really care either way.” Chowder interjects as he pours the steaming liquid into his cup. 

 

“I'll show you guys around tomorrow.” Nursey concedes before flopping down into an armchair. The kitchen has an open design to it, flowing right into the living room without much of a break. 

 

“Tonight, we watch an obscene amount of Cutthroat Kitchen and get drunk off of rich people booze.” Dex informs them, laughing as he tops off his mug with the brandy. 

 

“That sounds like a brilliant plan.” Nursey thumbs through his phone to find the number for the pizza place and orders while he hunts down the remotes for the television. He thinks he can feel Dex’s eyes on his back while he rummages through the drawers in the coffee table; he turns his head to look. Dex is staring at him intently as he sips his tea and Nursey can feel his world spinning. 

 

“I think it's right there.” Dex says, pointing to a decorative wicker bowl sitting _on_ the coffee table. Nursey blushes because, _apparently_ , he can't even function enough around Dex to find things that are literally ten inches from his face. 

 

“Oh, yeah, thanks.” He laughs awkwardly. 

 

“So what does our living arrangement for the next week look like?” Chowder asks, leaning against the island next to Farmer. Nursey is abruptly hit with the feeling that he's being ganged up on, Dex’s intense, inquisitive eyes and Farmer and Chowder’s dual, chirping grins all trained on him. 

 

“Oh. I was thinking you guys could take the guest room and Dex and I could share my room. Or, like, I'll sleep on the couch, if you want.” He says, stumbling over the last sentence. Dex’s face is a little pink, but he shrugs, smirks. 

 

“Whatever you want, man.” He says and Chowder and Farmer look like they're going to explode. Nursey sighs. He's not sure if he wants to spend the night with Dex, mainly because he doesn't know if he'll survive it. He's shared rooms with Dex on roadies before and that was painful enough, but this is his childhood home; the idea of a shirtless Dex in his bed is enough to turn his brain to mush. 

 

“I'll give you guys the grand tour.” Nursey says, realizing that they've been at his place for, probably, a half an hour and he still hadn't shown them the upstairs. He gives them the chance to relocate their bags, then leads them past the dining room and the office to the other living room, this one used more for parties and events than actual living. Usually, the huge windows making up the walls of the room would open up to a view of the city; now, however, the room was dark and empty, only a faint glow peeking out from behind the heavy satin satin drapes. Nursey makes a mental note to open them in the morning and wonders when the last time this room had seen light. Towards the back of the room, a gaudy, sweeping staircase slashes down across the hardwood floor. 

 

“There's an upstairs?” Dex asks, incredulous. “I thought this was an apartment building.” 

 

“Uh, yeah.” He says, unsure how to approach Dex’s comment. Instead, he heads towards the staircase, gesturing for them to follow. Upstairs, a hallway splits off, the left leading towards his mothers’ room, a guest bedroom, and a patio; to the right was Nursey’s room, a bathroom, and the guest room Chowder and Farmer were staying in. He leads them down the right hallway. “This is your room.” He says and opens the first doorway to the right. 

 

“Ooo!” Chowder exclaims and he lets him and Farmer drop their bags before leading Dex to his room. 

 

“How long has your family lived here?” He asks as they pass a collection of framed photos. Most of them are of big family get-togethers: Nursey and his cousins playing in the sandbox in his grandma’s backyard, his mama and tias in the kitchen, his grandpa playing the accordion to a gaggle of awestruck family members. Nursey watches Dex as he looks at the collection of photos. He doesn't ask any questions, but he spends a while staring at each photo. Nursey wonders what it would be like to bring Dex to meet his family, to bring him to holidays and introduce him as his boyfriend. Nursey’s stomach does an uncomfortable flip and he sighs, clears his throat. 

 

“Uh, we moved into this place when I was, like, eight. So, a while.” He says and then grabs Dex elbow softly before pulling him down the hallway. 

 

“This is my room.” Nursey pushes the door open. 

 

“Huh.” Dex says, looking around appreciatively. Nursey’s walls are plastered with posters and flags from local bands, flyers for poetry reading, pieces of art he liked. When he was in high school, he boarded at Andover, so most of the things he had up were from his summers. There were a few hockey trophies, a few poetry medals, and a small collection of animal figurines he had amassed; when he was a kid, he used to travel with his parents and he would always buy some kind of animal figurine, carved and wooden, light and porcelain, he even has one made from chiseled gemstone. As he got older, though, and his mothers’ trips abroad became increasingly more centered around work, Nursey stopped going with them, stopped getting _invited_ , really, but his moms always brought back an animal for him. 

 

“You play ukulele?” Dex asks, pulling him from his nostalgia. 

 

“Hm? Oh, not really. Like, I tried to learn a ton of times but it never really...clicked.” He says as Dex runs his fingers over the instrument hanging on a peg on his wall. “You can play it if you want.” Nursey says, curiously, because he wasn't even sure it Dex _could_ play it. His curiosity is squelched when Dex lifts it gingerly and rests it in the crook of his arm, plucking a few of the strings before tweaking the tuning pegs. Then, he starts playing--as if Nursey wasn't already half in love with the kid. Nursey sits on the foot of his bed, watches Dex. The other boy’s eyes are half shut so Nursey takes the chance to really look at him; his eyes graze over the lines in his body, the soft swell of the muscles in his arms, the way his jaw met his neck. He tried to avoid looking at Dex’s hands, though, for fear of doing something drastic...like blurt out how he really felt. 

 

“You're good.” Nursey says and Dex finished his chord progression before looking back up. 

 

“You sound surprised.” He hangs the instrument back up. 

 

“I guess I shouldn't be,” Nursey stars as he stands back up. “You're good with your hands.” Dex breathes out a laugh and rolls his eyes, a slight blush blooming high on his cheeks. Nursey leads them out of his room after that, retrieves Farmer and Chowder, and they return to the living room. While they finish waiting for the pizza to arrive, Nursey works on connecting the tv to Netflix as Farmer and Dex mix cocktails in the kitchen. 

 

“We’re gonna drink gin and tonic like rich, white old dudes who spend their afternoons talking about golf and why the Republican Party is getting too progressive.” Farmer calls from the kitchen, taking a swig straight from the bottle of gin with her pinky out. Nursey laughs, both at Farmer and at the lovesick look on Chowder’s face. 

 

“Chill, man.” Nursey says, bumping his shoulder against Chowder’s from where they're sitting on the couch. Chowder affixes him with a plain, level stare. 

 

“I can't wait until you and Dex get your shit together because you guys are going to be more sickening than me and Farmer and Bitty and Jack _combined_.” He says matter-of-factly. 

 

“First of all, shut the fuck up, he's right there and can hear you,” Nursey hisses. “And second? No one will ever be more sickeningly sweet and Jack and Bitty.” 

 

“Someone's gotta give them a run for their money.” Chowder shrugs. “But, wow! You two are some of the most oblivious people I know!” Chowder says with a laugh and Nursey can't do anything but glare. 

 

“You're _wrong_ , Chow.” Nursey says seriously, forlornly, and he believes it. Dex...Dex might be something that Nursey desperately wants, but he doesn't think it's something he could have; even if Dex even felt half of what Nursey felt for him, he doesn't think it possible that Dex’s feelings would last. It just…logically doesn't add up. Nursey knows Dex is going to get sick of him at some point, sick of their fighting, of Nursey's “pretentious shit”. Chowder looks at him for a few moments and he seems like he's about to say something when the doorbell rings. 

 

And so. 

 

Nursey introduces Farmer and Chowder, both of whom genuinely believe that California has decent pizza, to the wonders of _authentic_ New York style pizza. Dex, who had been to New York already, just shrugs as he catches a dripping string of cheese in his mouth and says “Illinois does it better.” 

 

“I can’t believe...in my house...Dex, I am aghast.” Nursey says, hand over his heart. Dex rolls his eyes and leans over to Farmer. 

 

“Trust me, deep-dish is where it’s out.” He says and takes another bite of his pizza. “I’m not saying this is _bad_ , Nurse, but--” and he waves his hand dismissively. 

 

“I can’t believe this. I thought I could trust you.” He says and takes a long drink of his cocktail. “Damn, this is good, though. Where did you find cranberry juice?” The night continues as such, the four of them polishing off the pizzas as well as the gin and a bottle of red wine as they sift through season after season of Cutthroat Kitchen. They yell at the tv, they yell at each other, and somehow, by the end of the night, Nursey is half in Dex’s lap. He knows, blearily, that he doesn’t _need_ to be in Dex’s lap, that there is tons of room on the couch, but Dex is warm and solid and his hand is rubbing at Nursey’s lower back so he burrows in closer, tucking his head into the crook of Dex’s neck. He can feel lips against the back of his neck, just faintly, and he shivers. 

 

“What the hell! There’s no fucking way you can make a grilled cheese sandwhich without cheese, oh my god.” Chowder yells at the tv; his face is a bright red and he’s sprawled across the other couch, a glass of wine threatening to fall out of his hand. Farmer giggles and pats his chest. 

 

“It’s okay. He has--he has asparagus.” She says, as if that, somehow, solves the predicament on the television. At this point, Nursey doesn’t really care about Cuttroat Kitchen anymore, just the feeling of Dex against his back and the taste of thirty dollar wine against his throat. 

 

“Hey, Nursey. Nursey, c’mon Nurse.” He feels fingers trail up the side of his face. “Derek, wake up.”

 

“What?” Nursey asks groggily. His head is in Dex’s lap now, legs curled to his chest. 

 

“You fell asleep, babe, and we’re all gonna go to bed.” Nursey knows that, if he wasn’t as drunk, if he wasn’t as sleepy, he would have recognized the petname and, probably, freaked the fuck out about it. Now, however, he just sits up, leans against Dex’s shoulder, and rubs his eyes blearily. 

 

“‘Kay. But you have to help me.” Dex definitely drank as much as him but, as per usual, he actually seemed to have _control_ of his actions. Dex stumbles up. Emphasis on _seemed_. Dex puts out a hand to steady Nursey and then manhandles him until he’s standing. Slowly, and with minimal injury, they make it back to Nursey’s room, where Dex deposits him on his bed before digging through his bed.

 

“Are you okay with sharing a bed? There’s...there’s another guest room, yanno?” Nursey mumbles, face down against a pillow. He’s trying to shake of his jeans, but, being as drunk as he is, coupled with the fact that he’s laying down and simultaneously trying to get under the covers, it proves to be a difficult task. “There’s, like, a guest room right there, but like...I kind of wanted to share with you, yanno, that was, like, the plan.” Dex stops rummaging in his bag.

 

“What?” Dex asks slowly and Nursey can hear his accent distinctly, the way it gets when he’s had too much to drink. 

 

“Kinda my excuse to sleep next to you.” Nursey says softly, barely registering his admission. He’s still thrashing a bit, trying to get out of his jeans. Finally, he wretches them off and tosses them to the floor. 

 

“Oh.” Dex says and Nursey hears him pad over to the bed, feels the mattress give and Dex lift the covers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay!!! OKAY!!!!!! Nursey continues to be ??? so oblivious like what the fuck. Anyways, I'm gonna continue to shove my pop punk Dex headcannon down your throats bc I have this. Thing. Where Dex listens to so much shoegaze now that he's outgrown pop punk so ok that's a thing. I wanted to get this chapter out yesterday as an additional Christmas present to my good bro, Jessica, but I missed that so.  
> Stick around for the next chapter when they might just make out and [REDACTED].  
> Also Title Fight is a real band and I do not own the song used in this shit fic; Half Moon, however, is not a real band but it sounds like some kind of trash Nursey might listen to.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have the vaguest understanding of New York.

Nursey doesn't want to talk about it. Well, he does, hereally fucking does, but the idea of saying it, of finding the right combination of words to make Dex really understand how much he means to him...it's daunting. 

Light splashes across his room, illuminating his walls and leaving a kaleidoscope of colour against Dex’s skin. Nursey feels bad, momentarily, for watching Dex while he sleeps but, considering he woke up with the other boy pressed tightly to his side, one arm flung across his chest, Nursey gets over it. His head feels fuzzy, his mouth even more so, but the desire to stay in bed-- _to enjoy this while it lasts_ \--overrides the part of him that wants to hunt down ibuprofen and brush his teeth.  
Dex shifts and his head is on Nursey’s shoulder; Nursey sighs, shuts his eyes tightly, before looking up at the ceiling in defeat. He can feel Dex’s breath against his jaw, he can feel Dex’s pulse against his heart. 

He's fucking sick of it. He thought he could handle spending time with Dex without the urge to kiss him rearing its ugly fucking head every ten minutes but...now Nursey knows what it's like to wake up enveloped in Dex and he knows there’s no way he can go back to hanging out with him without making things unbearably uncomfortable. He knows he has to either come clean to Dex or never speak to him ever again for the rest of his life, ever. Both options make Nursey wonder if transferring schools halfway through the semester would be a bad idea. 

Dex shifts again, but this time his arm is slowly pulling off of Nursey; Dex rolls into his back and Nursey scoots away, minutely, before Dex yawns, coughs, and blinks. He turns his head and blink again, slow and sleepy, and Nursey wants to cry. 

“Hi.” Nursey whispers and corners of Dex’s lips curl up. 

“Morning.” He responds, sitting up slightly and leaning against the wall. Nursey stays laying down, watching Dex as he yawns and reaches for his phone. His eyebrows shoot up. “Oh my god, it's almost ten.”

“S’cool,” Nursey mumbles and props his head up in his hand. “We’re just gonna dick around the city all day, so we have time.” Dex shrugs. 

“Yeah, I just can't believe how quick it took for me to fuck up my sleep schedule.”

“You're literally the only person stupid enough to take classes at _seven forty am_ so excuse me if I'm not concerned about the time.” Dex flicks his shoulder before looking back at his phone. “Ow. Is this domestic abuse considering we’re sharing a bed for the week?” Dex raises an eyebrow. 

“I don't think ‘sharing a bed’ really constitutes as a relationship, Nurse.” Dex says without looking up. “Besides, I'm a great fucking boyfriend and am honestly offended that you would insinuate I would ever hurt my partner.” Nursey scoots up to mirror Dex’s position against the wall and latches onto his arm. He can feel Dex tense, just barely. 

“C’mon, Dexy, I didn't mean it like that.” He whines, burying his head in the other boy's neck. Dex breathes a laugh. “I bet you'd make a great boyfriend.”

“Alright, fine, fine.” Nursey tightens his grip, because he can, and is immediately regretful when he feels the slide of Dex’s muscles under his hands. “Let go of me, you leach!” And Nursey does, slowly and painstakingly. He flops back on the bed. “So what _is_ the agenda for the day?” Dex asks, finally looking at him. 

“Uh, I was thinking we get bagels and start at Central Park. Farmer’s gonna love it. We need to pick up some groceries because all we have is like, hard cheddar cheese and a few cans of this nasty excuse for lentil soup.” Nursey says, arching his back to stretch. Dex is still looking at him. “Um, and then, um.” Nursey closes his eyes tightly and hopes Dex thinks it's just him thinking. “I want to take you guys to the Museum of Natural history--because it's fuckin’ ‘swawesome, don't laugh--and, like, the aquarium, because I know Chowder will love it. Probably not all today but...I don't know, whatever you guys are in the mood to do. Like I said, we’ll probably take it easy for most of the week.” Nursey says and Dex hums in response. 

“Sure. I'm game for whatever.” And Nursey can't help but laugh because _that_ was helpful. 

“When did you get so chill, Poindexter?” Dex’s eyes widen. “Finally learned how to go with the flow?” 

“You're insufferable.” Dex groans before hoisting himself off the wall and collapsing onto Nursey’s chest. Dex continues scrolling through his phone, elbows digging into Nursey’s ribs. Nursey feels warm and safe in a way that makes his chest twist uncomfortably. 

“I can't breathe.” He gasps after a moment. Dex just digs his elbows deeper into Nursey’s sides.

_/ \\_

Wednesday morning, Nursey introduces his friends to the wonders of Coney Island and the aquarium. The boardwalk was always a good idea with any group--because it’s a fucking boardwalk: there are rides and lights and screaming children and awful sunburnt tourists to make fun of and more sugar than Nursey thinks Bitty has ever seen in his life--and the aquarium was uniquely brilliant. Nursey got to watch Chowder light up in excitement over, well, _everything_ and listen to Farmer, who was majoring in marine biology, ramble on about ocean dwelling plants. It was incredibly endearing. What Nursey was least prepared for, however, was the way the light filtered through the tanks, casting blue-green shadows over Dex and bathing him in swirling, hypnotic patterns. 

They were watching the seahorses careen around their tanks. The viewing holes for the seahorse tanks were small, little windows lit up with neon lights, and Nursey and Dex had to press close to get a look into the tanks. The tank they were at presently was flooded with purple light, which clashed wildly with Dex’s hair but seemed to make his freckles glow, turning his skin a translucent, otherworldly shade; Nursey found himself watching the seahorses reflected in Dex’s eyes rather than in real time. 

“What?” Dex asks, seeming to finally realize Nursey was staring at him. Nursey can't tell in the busy, jarring lighting, but he's almost positive Dex is blushing. 

“Your hair looks stupid in this lighting.” Nursey says, smirking. Dex shoves his shoulder hard and takes a massive step to the right so that he's facing a different window. This one is a bright neon blue, and it paints streaks of cool light over his features, accentuating them starkly. Nursey feels frozen, the breath in his lungs a solid block keeping him in place. Dex looks over at him, then, a question in his eyes, before inching over and gesturing for Nursey to join him. He does, and Dex’s shoulder falls against his. 

It's too much. 

“I'm gonna go to the bathroom,” he says. Dex nods. 

“I'll be...around here, probably.” Nursey locates the bathroom sign before darting around the corner and leaning against the wall outside the bathroom. He takes out his phone and sifts through his groupchats, finding the one he has exclusively with Chowder and Farmer. It's mostly Farmer making fun of Chowder for being a lovable dork--they're gag-worthy affectionate; Nursey kind of loves it--and both of them teaming up to tease him about Dex.

 _sos emergency_ he sends and within seconds there are little dots indicating Farmer’s response. _meet me outside the bathrooms next to the seahorses_ he texts before her response can come through. A few minutes later, Chowder and Farmer find him, confusion on their faces, sitting in the alcove between the men and women’s bathrooms, next to the water fountain. 

“Um, where’s Dex?” Chowder asks as Farmer crouches to sit next to Nursey. He doesn't look at them. 

“I need to make this happen immediately.”

“Ah.” Chowder rubs the back of his neck. “Why don't you just, like, tell him?” He asks, as if Nursey hadn't thought of that before. Nursey grieves a sigh. 

“I don't want to fuck--”

“Stop waiting for him to make the first move.” Farmer interrupts, an edge to her voice, and Nursey groans. “ _What are you waiting for?_ ” 

“I don't want to ruin our friendship!” Nursey shouts then, loud and angry, months of built up frustration directed at his friend. Farmer flinches and he drops his chin to his knees. They look kind of nervous, now, as he peers at them through half-lidded eyes. They don't want to upset him; he sighs. “I'm being a baby about it, I know. He’s just...he means a lot to me, you know? I don't want to mess that up. It'll, uh, fuck up things on the ice.” It's a reach: he knows it, Farmer knows it, even Chowder, who talks about hockey almost as much as Jack, knows it. They both roll their eyes, eerily in sync. 

“You're so into him, there's no way he hasn't noticed. Hell, the fishes here probably knows how much you're gagging for him.” Farmer says, making Chowder choke and laugh, and Nursey can’t help but do the same. “All I'm saying is, he knows you like him and he's not disgusted or offended or anything. He's still your friend.”

“Nursey, he hasn't exactly _said_ anything, but anyone with a pulse can tell that he's almost as disgustingly infatuated with you as you are with him.” Chowder says and Nursey knows he can't refute that without getting absolutely chewed out by them. 

“I'll try to do...something--something by the end of the week.” He decides and they let out a sigh of relief. 

“We’re holding you too that.” Chowder says, clapping him on the back. 

“It's exhausting watching you two tip-toe around each other like this.” Farmer adds. 

“Exhausting.” Nursey agrees. 

_/ \\_

Friday night in New York City isn't, really, that much busier than other nights; his city is always alive, sparking with energy, so the increase of people celebrating the weekend has a negligible impact. Still, it's Friday, and Nursey is feeling sentimental. He decides to take them to a Cuban restaurant a few streets up from where he lives.  
Chowder and Farmer are a few steps behind, stopping periodically to take photos of the city. Nursey is pretty sure it’s mostly selfies and pictures of pigeons. 

“I used to come here all the time with my moms.” He says as they're walking. He doesn't know _why_ he’s feeling so sentimental, but he thinks it has something to do with the fact that he has one more full day to say something to Dex, one more full day until everything changes. Maybe he’s being dramatic; he doesn't care. 

“I've never had Cuban food.” Dex muses. 

“Let’s hope your tragically Caucasian palate can handle it.” Nursey chirps and Dex snorts. He doesn't say anything for a few moments, so Nursey continues. “This place is really cool. After they stop serving food, it turns into a dance hall. Sometimes they have showcases there, like, professionals come in and dance rumba. Usually, they just have a house band, though, and anyone can dance.” He explains. “So, uh, if you want to dance. We could, um, do that.” Nursey’s knows how hard he’s blushing as he rubs the back of his neck. He chances a glance at Dex, who is looking ahead with a soft expression around his eyes. 

“Will you teach me?” Nursey trips, tongue feeling heavy in his mouth, but catches himself on a fire hydrants before he can hit the concrete. Besides him, Dex is laughing; behind him, he hears Farmer’s honking laugh and Chowder mumbling something, which only makes her laugh harder. When he rights himself, Dex is looking at him expectantly. 

“Oh, ah, yeah, of course, man.” He says and Dex’s lips curl up. 

“I mean, if you don't think you're going to trip over your own feet…” Nursey gasps. 

“I'm a _great_ dancer!” He asserts. “It's in my blood! How dare you insult my heritage like that.”

“Oh, gosh, I am _so sorry_ that you tripping over thin air makes me a little less than secure in your teaching abilities.” Dex responds with an eye roll. 

“Just you wait, Dex, I'm gonna sweep you off your feet.” He says with a nudge to the other boy’s shoulder. Dex laughs.

“I'm counting on it.” 

_/ \\_

“Okay, so, I have no idea what that was,” Chowder gestures to a half eaten plate. “But it was so, so ‘swawesome.” Nursey pushes it closer to him. At Nursey’s urging, they all shared a couple of different plates, that way they would get to try a bit of everything. It's almost nine and waiters are already pushing tables out of the middle of the room, clearing a space and revealing sparkling wooden floors. Nursey watches as the band sets up in the corner and he feels a flutter of nerves; it's one thing dancing at a Haus party, where he's almost always a little buzzed and dancing almost always constitutes as grinding, but this is different. Dex’s knee, hovering dangerously close to his own, keeps reminding Nursey of the fact that he's going to dance with Dex. He knows he's too sober for this. 

They pay soon after and head outside for some fresh air before the music starts. Groups of people, many of whom are speaking in loud, excited Spanish, start wandering into the restaurant-turned-dance hall. Dex turns to Nursey. 

“So what are the…the basic moves?” Dex asks, wincing slightly at his word choice. Nursey grins and pushes himself away from the wall he was leaning against. Chowder and Farmer watch them curiously. 

“Okay, so this is, like, one of the major thing you need to know, if we’re talking rumba.” He shuffles his feet a little. “It's called a box step, uh, kind of like in a waltz.” He says, displaying the steps slowly, exaggerated. Dex is nodding, watching his feet. 

“Okay, okay. I learned how to waltz once for a wedding.” Nursey can't help but smile, imagining Dex all done up in a suit with his hair slicked back. Then, he remembers Dex mentioning how he had pierced ears as a kid and he wonders if he wore them to the wedding, if his hair was too long to slick back. Nursey snaps out of his reverie when Dex starts to step. 

“Hm,” Nursey regards his movements. “You need to move your hips more.” Dex does. 

“Uh, like this?” Nursey laughs as he jerks his hips in time with his feet. Hesitantly, Nursey steps closer and presses the tips of his fingers to Dex’s hip. 

“You need to relax,” he says. “Put more sway into it.” With his hand still wrapped around Dex, he reproduces his steps from earlier. Dex’s eyes slide down Nursey’s chest, torso, and settle on his hips. 

“Oh.” Dex says and slides his own hand, previously having been hovering a few inches above his waist, to Nursey’s lower back. It sits there, comfortably, fits perfectly in the groove of his spine. A dusting of pink spreads across his cheeks and Nursey hopes it's dark enough that Dex can't see the heat in his own cheeks. Dex’s hips are moving sinuously; Nursey only looks at them long enough to recognize that he’s actually dancing _well_. Nursey had seen him at kegsters and, for the most part, Dex either stuck to the walls or played drinking games; he always kind of assumed Dex would dance like a white dad. 

“You’re actually dancing pretty well.” Nursey says and Dex breathes a laugh, leaning towards Nursey ever so slightly. 

“Don't sound so surprised.” Dex’s hand tightens on his back. Nursey tries to ignore it. “I'm a great learner.” Nursey doesn't know how he’s still standing. 

“Um, do you guys want to go in?” Chowder asks and Nursey jerks, dropping his hand from Dex’s hip as if he had been burnt. For a moment, he had forgotten Chowder and Farmer were even there. 

“Sure.” Dex says simply, his hand sliding, slowly, from Nursey’s back. 

It's hot inside the hall. The chandeliers had been turned off, the only light coming from the multicolored fluorescents behind the bar and a few spotlights on the band. Nursey could feel the blare of the trumpet deep in his bones. Dozens of people were packed into the small space, shuffling, laughing, sweating--many were singing along with the band. Nursey feels something in his chest give, like a floodgate opening, and warmth spreads through him to his fingertips. 

He's going to kiss Dex tonight. 

It feels like a premonition, sparking across his skin like needle pricks, but it’s positive. Daunting, terrifying, but...positive. He looks over to Dex, who is eyeing the crowd with what looks like mild apprehension, and nudges him, catches his eye, before nodding towards the dancers. Dex looks like he’s trying not to smile when he nods roughly and follows Nursey to the center of the floor. 

Dex stands there stiffly, eyeing the people around them awkwardly until Nursey wraps his fingers around Dex’s wrists, hips swinging and feet moving, before trailing them up to rest at his shoulder. Nursey is eighty percent positive he can see Dex’s pupils dilate. Dex mimics his movements, but loosely curls his hands against Nursey’s hips. The song changes, then, and Nursey speeds up to match the tempo. Dex does the same, laughing when he stumbles a little; Nursey can't help but laugh back as instinctively presses his grin into the crook of Dex’s neck. One of Nursey’s hands slide down to Dex’s waist, his other arm hooking around Dex’s neck; Dex’s fingers crawl back to the base of Nursey’s back, long fingers digging into his skin, casting tendrils of warmth. 

A few more songs pass and they inch marginally closer, grow marginally sweatier. Nursey recognizes a few of the songs and yells the words along with the dancers in the hall. Dex is grinning, carefree and wild, and Nursey has never wanted to kiss someone more. Dex leans in and presses his chest flush to Nursey, drags his fingers along Nursey’s back; Nursey angles his face toward Dex’s and--

“I need water.” Dex yells, loud in Nursey’s ear. He doesn't let go of Nursey, just slides his hand down to pull loosely at his wrist, tugging him towards the bar. Nursey feels a twinge of disappointment tug at the very fibers of his being. It's quieter at the bar, barely, but enough that they don't have to yell to hear each other. 

“I'm having a lot of fun.” Dex says honestly as he stirs the straw in his cup, making figure eights around the ice. Nursey finds it incredibly endearing, considering how often he does that, on a larger scale, during warm ups before practice. Nursey rests an arm on the flaking wood of the bar. 

“Me too.” He agrees. “I'm really glad you came.”

“As opposed to what? Hang around your apartment?” He bumps Nursey’s shoulder. “Wouldn't want to miss any opportunity to chirp you.” Nursey rolls his eyes. 

“No, for, like, coming to New York with us. It's cool...having my favourite people in my favourite city for almost a week.” Dex blinks. 

“Oh.” He breathes and Nursey can’t hear it as much as he sees the twitch of Dex’s chest and the drop of his jaw. His eyes flit over the crowd before wandering back and catching on Nursey’s. “Wanna go back in?”

“Of course.” Nursey responds and they down their waters. 

_/ \\_

When they get home, it's closing in on one am. Nursey’s legs feel like jello and his skin is tacky where his sweat had dried. As soon as the door shuts, the four of them collapse onto the couch. 

“I'm so sleepy.” Farmer mumbles, curling against Chowder. He wraps an arm around her, presses his nose into her hair. “I could fall asleep right here, right now.”

“You smell _ripe_.” Chowder chirps and Nursey smiles tiredly as they giggle together. “I'm gonna shower and go to bed.” He says, carefully detangling himself from Farmer’s protesting frame, who makes makes grabby hands at him until he helps her up. 

“G’night.” She mumbles as they head down the hall. 

“Night!” Nursey and Dex call in unison. Dex’s head drops against the back of the couch, eyes fluttering closed as he smiles softly. 

“I’m fucking exhausted. Do you want to head up?” Nursey asks, yawning. 

“Probably.” Dex responds without any conviction. Instead, he flops over so that his head is in Nursey’s lap. “You're comfy.” Nursey breathes a laugh and threads his hand through Dex’s hair, petting the curls that were beginning to gather around his ears. Dex hums. 

“Can I kiss you?” Nursey says on an exhale before sucking in a sharp breath, hand freezing in Dex’s hair. Dex’s eyes open slowly, eyebrows threading tightly. 

“What?” Nursey shifts awkwardly. He knows he can't take it back, but he can sure as hell try. 

“Nothing, fuck, uh, never mind.” He says, starting to pull his hand away from Dex’s hair; Dex grabs his wrist, stopping him. 

“Wait,” he says and pushes himself up on an elbow. “Kiss me.” He says and Nursey’s breath hitches for the second time that minutes. 

“Really?” Nursey asks in awe. Dex rolls his eyes. 

“I swear to fucking god, Nurse, if you don't--” Nursey silences him, pressing his lips to Dex’s softly, and his eyes flutter closed. “Again.” Dex breathes when Nursey finally breaks contact. He abides, curling an arm under Dex’s shoulders to lift him up as Dex fists a hand in Nursey’s shirt. It was kind of uncomfortable, Nursey’s back hunched awkwardly to reach Dex; he maneuvers them carefully as not to break contact, sliding so that his back is against the arm of the couch and Dex is pressed on top of him, lips sliding lazily against Nursey’s. Dex’s hands find Nursey’s face, his thumbs pressing lightly against his cheek bones, and Nursey’s hands find Dex’s back. He trails his fingers along the strip of skin where Dex’s shirt had ridden up and Dex shivers; Nursey thumbs at the hem of his shirt and slides his hands up, slowly, fingers driving into the coiled muscles of his back, rubbing the supple skin there. Dex groans softly and Nursey’s legs drop open so he can pull Dex closer against him.

“Fucking took you long enough.” Dex grumbles against Nursey’s lips. Nursey thinks he laughs, but it comes out more like a whine, making Dex laugh in response before licking along the seam of Nursey’s lips. His mouth drops open instantaneously, mechanically, and he changes the angle of his head, slotting their lips together perfectly. Dex’s tongue presses tentatively against Nursey’s and his whine returns, high and needy, before he digs his fingers into Dex’s back again, knees tightening against his thighs. 

Their kisses don't progress much past that: Nursey feels perfect, irrevocably content, and Dex seems satisfied with mapping Nursey’s face with his fingertips and his lips with his own. It feels like they're one person, skin melting together and molding Nursey into something new and whole. 

Nursey isn't sure how long they're on the couch until he wakes up the next morning, neck aching and skin warm. His eyes open blearily and he blinks a few times before he realizes: Dex is pressed against his chest, hips turned to face the inside of the couch, one arm curled under Nursey’s shirt, against his ribs, the other pinned between the couch and his own chest. Nursey kind of wants to stay like that forever, but the pain in his neck and his shallow breathing says otherwise. Nursey thinks about kissing him awake. 

“Ow, what the fuck?” Dex mumbles after Nursey flicks his shoulder. 

“I think I'm dying.” Dex glares at him before realizing that, yeah, he was kind of crushing the other boy. 

“Oh. Oh, shit, sorry.” He scrambles up so that he's sitting on his thighs, still resting between the v of Nursey’s legs, and regards him with an odd expression. Then, eyebrows quirking momentarily, he spreads his palms against Nursey’s chest and arches down to kiss him, slowly, softly, and, in an instant, he's gone. Somewhere along the way Nursey’s eyes slip closed. 

“You guys want coffee?” Nursey’s eyes shoot open. Farmer, rounding the corner of the couch and into Nursey’s line of vision, looks awfully pleased in the shark print boxers she stole from Chowder and the t-shirt she got from the aquarium, coffee mug steaming against her lips. 

“That would be great.” Dex responds, voice steady, but the freckles on his ears have disappeared under a veil of red. “Two teaspoons of sugar, no cream and a splash of cream, no sugar.” He says to Farmer but his eyes haven't left Nursey’s. 

“Right.” She says, retreating back to the kitchen. Nursey thinks he can hear her whispering conspiratorially but can't find it in him to care as he fists a hand in Dex’s shirt and pulls him down to meet him for another kiss. 

“Can we talk about this?” Nursey asks a few minutes later, coffee mugs in hand. They're sitting now, Nursey’s back against Dex’s chest. Dex lets out a soft groan. 

“I mean,” he stops, sighs. “That's probably a good idea.” 

“I know you don't like talking about your feelings because you're an emotionally stunted American male, but, uh, I really, really like you--like really, really--and I was kind of hoping you'd be my boyfriend?”

“Kind of?” Dex chirps, empty hand skimming along Nursey’s thigh. “Does being your “kind of boyfriend” entail free fancy dinners and unlimited back massages?” 

“God, now that dating is on the table, you're cool with me buying stuff for you? That's fucked, Poindexter.” 

“I might be a gold digger, but I don't do handouts.” He says with a shrug and Nursey feels lips brush against his neck. “It’s payment for unlimited kisses.” Dex says and Nursey feels his lips against the pulse point under his ear. Nursey feels teeth, then a pressure, and gasps. 

“Did you just give me a hickey?” He asks, incredulous, whipping around to look at Dex. He's shaking a little, laughing, and catches Nursey’s lips with his own, sidetracking Nursey again. “Wait, stop, come on. William Poindexter, will you be my boyfriend?”

“I've literally been waiting for you to ask since last semester, dude.” Nursey groans, dropping his head against Dex’s chest. “You're a dumbass.”

“Yes, thank you, Chowder has reminded me on numerous occasions...I almost kissed you, that time we got frozen yoghurt after the park.” He thinks back. 

“I almost kissed you, then, too, and, like, ever day since.” He says flippantly, as if Nursey’s heart didn't just stop. 

“ _You’re_ the dumbass.” Nursey says, affronted. “God, we could have been doing this for _months_ , what the fuck.” Dex shrugs again. 

“Got you now.” He says softly, and tightens his arms around Nursey’s torso. 

\\_ _/

“I'm not gonna lie,” Chowder says, dropping another Cliff bar and a diet Sprite onto the pile Nursey had amassed at the cash register. “I really thought we were gonna have to, like, tell Dex you were in love with him and then lock you two together in a room, or something.” Nursey swipes his card. 

“I never go back on my word.” Nursey says sagely and Chowder cackles. They grab their bags before tossing back a “have a nice day” at the cashier and heading to the car. 

“That's the biggest fucking lie I’ve ever heard. You promised Bitty a new couch months ago and we still have that toxic monstrosity.” 

“First of all, you love that couch, I've seen you whisper sweet nothings to it an inscrutable amount of times, both sober and not. Second, I'm sentimental.” He says with a shrug. “Third, Shitty would probably kill me, like, he'd probably get the rest of the team to kill me _with the new couch_.” Chowder’s eyebrows rise. 

“Like, throw it at you?” 

“Or something.” They're laughing when they get back to the car, Dex still standing outside next to the gas pump, Farmer pulling her leg in a flamingo stretch. “Your spoils.” Nursey says in a pompous voice, handing the nondescript black bag to Dex, who rolls his eyes fondly before pulling him in to kiss his cheek. 

“Can we fine them even if we're on break?” Farmer whispers to Chowder, snickering. 

“I bought all of these snacks, so I'm gonna kiss the fuck out of my boyfriend and you guys are gonna have to fuckin’ deal.” Nursey says before sliding a hand behind Dex’s neck. 

\\_ _/

“Oh,” Bitty says, surprised. “You're alive.” He's hunched over the kitchen table, a slew of papers before him. Dex snorts. 

“Barely.” He says. “The drive back was hell.” Nursey agrees, kind of, because they got stuck in traffic for almost two hours, but he wasn't driving and got to cuddle up with Dex in the back of the car for half the ride. Nursey punches him on the shoulder anyways. 

“Did you bring back any souvenirs?” Bitty asks, now completely distracted from whatever he was working on. Dex turns to Nursey, raises an eyebrow. Nursey blinks. 

“A boyfriend.” Dex responds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL! That's it! This is the first time I have ever finished a full length fic for _any_ fandom so I'm a little emotional rn. I still can't believe how long I dragged that out when they could have been smoochin' since day one.  
>  Also, shout out to my best bro, tumblr user @poindexterpatrol for the idea of thatnlast exchange between Bitty and Dex, you're the real MVP  
> Find me on tumblr @kaleidoscopeparson

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!!! Find me on tumblr @ kaleidoscopeparson or softcoresewerbats.


End file.
